The number of applicants waiting for social housing in East Devon has risen by nearly a fifth in the past year.

New figures show 3,065 applicants were on the register in April this year, up 18 per cent from 2,588 in the same month last year.

This figure includes residents in Band A through to Band D, with the former being the highest need.

That means the district had the second biggest rise of any other council in Devon in that period, with only Teignbridge experiencing a higher rise.

Teignbridge’s 36 per cent increase still means it has 1,537 applicants on its housing waiting list, less than half that of East Devon.

East Devon’s waiting list experienced this biggest jump in a three-month period for two years, with the rise from January this year to April hitting 212 cases, the highest of all of Devon’s districts.

In better news for East Devon, though, it had the second largest increase in applicants moving into Band E, people who live in homes adequate to meet their housing needs, or who have enough money to resolve their own housing issues.

The biggest drop in housing waiting lists was in Plymouth, where the waiting list fell by more than a third (35 per cent) to 4,998 in April this year, compared to 7,666 in the same month in 2023.